ATT dishonest additional data charges

@CensoredComment

I had to read the first post twice as it didn't make sense, and it still doesn't make sense.
Did you contact ATT?
It just makes sense to ask them to review the charge. If they messed up, they will credit the charge. What does your account show for data for this month? Is it showing 0 or is your data renewed?

On another topic.....
Why are you exceeding your data allowance? How much data? What phone? What apps are using the data?
Yes, turn by turn directions use about 1 gb for each 24 hours of use.

You have options:
1. Waze app preloads directions on wifi, so will google maps.
2. Use the ATT all access app to monitor your data during the month. Check it weekly to see if you are on track.
3. If you have an android, you can set usage warnings and limits on the device itself.
4. You can turn off your data on the account, using the My ATT app on the phone. It will start again with the new bill period.
5. Newer phones or updates may be causing increased data use. Review settings in apps.
6. Increase your data plan. (I know, I know. But if your lifestyle changes you may need the data.
7. Consider the new plan with zero overages. It might be cheaper.
https://www.att.com/shop/wireless/data-plans.html

Thank you for the FCC link. AT&T should offer the option to "add"  additional data as needed, or decline the additonal 1GB. Especially when its your last day of the billing cycle. We shouldnt have to constantly monitor data use.They have the technology to do that. Let the customers decide if we want or need to "add" an additional 1GB when our limits are reached.

@Brownies Though your point is valid, the plan you are on no longer exists. ATT has done away with automatic overage charges but as long as you stay on your old plan, you will be charged when you go over. The point, though, it is useless to complain to the FCC. The answer is switch to a new plan. ATT will not make changes to old plans and the FCC would not expect them to.

@sandblaster I think this is mostly sound advice, except that for many, the new plans are more expensive for less data.  It would cost me almost 15 more, for our three devices, and I'd get 4GB less data/month.  

Sure, if I was having overage problems, or similar data-management issues, the "more for less" (with the 3G overage protection bailout) might be somewhat attractive, but otherwise...

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@Brownies wrote:

AT&T should offer the option to "add"  additional data as needed, or decline the additonal 1GB. Especially when its your last day of the billing cycle. We shouldnt have to constantly monitor data use.They have the technology to do that. Let the customers decide if we want or need to "add" an additional 1GB when our limits are reached.

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It's not how the plan you agreed to works, if you go over you get billed.

Not all data is reported live, so it gets totaled later by AT&T. Your phone has a more accurate count.

The current plans from AT&T do not have overages (actually slow down data when you are out).

The new plans might work out to be cheaper for you too. Depends on your current plan. https://www.att.com/shop/wireless/data-plans.html You defiently wouldn't get overages.

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@Light818 wrote:

I have been an ATT customer for 20 years and will switch carriers after this incident with the data scam. My daughter and I both bought new iPhone 7 and immediately our data was eaten up with the hidden "wifi assist" (scam your data) feature.

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While you complained about WiFi assist, you didn't mention how much it actually used. 

Also newer phones often eat more data, since you have a faster phone it may download more of a web page or a video before you leave that page and go to a different page (or video). If you've got a larger (higher resolution) screen, some sites might automatically server you higher resolution (larger) images, which use more data.

If your phone is set to download app updates automatically over cellular that'll eat up more data too (I've seen more updates this fall than ever).

I will add one point to the original poster.  It sounds to me like they have encountered a very infrequent situation that I once hit a couple years ago.  On the day my billing cycle ended, but still hours before the cycle ended, my data usage had hit 90% of my plan amount, so I got the text that I was at 90%.  Several hours later, at midnight, my plan reset, and the following morning about 10:00am, I got another email telling me that I had used 95% of my 10GB data plan for the new month.  Much like the original poster, I was wondering how I had used over 9GB of data in 10 hours, so I started some research.  What I found was that my data plan had reset at midnight, and I hadn't used 95% of my data, so there was no problem. 

I ended up exchanging messages with someone inside AT&T who was researching this for me to find out that once your account exceeds a certain threshhold, the account is flagged into a sub-system which monitors the data usage in more detail.  That subsystem is told how much data you have used, and at what level you get hit with an overage, but it does not communicate with the accounting system in real time, so when your billing cycle resets, that sub-system doesn't know that yet.  This is what causes the confusing messages to go out about using all of your plan so shortly after your plan resets.  The accounting system should actually catch that the billing cycle reset, and not actually charge you for the overage.  If it did charge you, you can just call them and get it removed.  It's not a huge conspiracy,  just a hard to track down and remove bug that doesn't happen very often, and most people don't ever notice because they check their accounts and don't get billed, even when the text message says they will.

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@Gary L wrote:

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@Light818 wrote:

I have been an ATT customer for 20 years and will switch carriers after this incident with the data scam. My daughter and I both bought new iPhone 7 and immediately our data was eaten up with the hidden "wifi assist" (scam your data) feature.

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Also newer phones often eat more data, since you have a faster phone it may download more of a web page or a video before you leave that page and go to a different page (or video). If you've got a larger (higher resolution) screen, some sites might automatically server you higher resolution (larger) images, which use more data.

 

If your phone is set to download app updates automatically over cellular that'll eat up more data too (I've seen more updates this fall than ever).

 

 

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On (most) Android implementations (and Win Phone), you can set things to a "data saver" mode, which will force low-res videos, prevent background updates, and really limit "push" apps too, such as FB, email, etc.

Critical stuff like phone calls, texting, etc., functions as it would in any other mode, only the "ancillary" apps get blocked, or delayed, until YOU decide to access them, download updates, new data, etc.

This can take data usage to almost zilch, in a very simple change, temporarily while you wait for a new billing period, or all the time, it's flexible (you can even set times for it to turn on/off, with a third-party app).

Just something to consider, I would assume iOS has a similar mechanism(s)?

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@pgrey wrote:
On (most) Android implementations (and Win Phone), you can set things to a "data saver" mode, which will force low-res videos, prevent background updates, and really limit "push" apps too, such as FB, email, etc.

Critical stuff like phone calls, texting, etc., functions as it would in any other mode, only the "ancillary" apps get blocked, or delayed, until YOU decide to access them, download updates, new data, etc.

This can take data usage to almost zilch, in a very simple change, temporarily while you wait for a new billing period, or all the time, it's flexible (you can even set times for it to turn on/off, with a third-party app).

Just something to consider, I would assume iOS has a similar mechanism(s)?

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You can choose a lot of things to not use cellular, but I think if you have them on and it's an app that runs in the background it will run on cellular like normal. I could be wrong, it might automagically turn some background apps after a while on celluar or no battery.

You can tell the the iTunes store not to use cellular for AUTOMATIC downloads (app updates, books, new app or book purchases).

Facebook you can set to use less in facebook, the same for my news app (reeder). I think the podcasts app has some issues too.

But I think most of those are ON by default. Since I had a phone before many of those features were implemented, I'm not sure how they are out of the box. And for years, I had (wasted my money on) unlimited so I never cared in terms of data (although I had some turned off to save power).

On the other hand:

If you tether / hotspot an iPad or MacBook (with recent operating systems) it's really really good at not doing much in terms of background tasks. I'm not sure if they are smart enough on other hotspot devices, but the icon when you connect is even different. I'm shocked at how little data it uses sometimes, even after hours of use.

WiFi Assist is an APPLE feature. Not AT&T. The carrier has no control over what features a manufacturer puts in a phone especially an iPhone. Apple has full control.

If WiFi Assist caused data usage it means a WiFi connection was of poor quality. Again, that's not something the carrier has any control over.